LAWLESS (John Hillcoat, 2012)

Oh, Shia LaBeouf, how hard you try to sink this movie.  It's a tremendous effort and there were, at times, real concerns that you'd be able to pull it off.  Not the least of which is the unbearable narration.  I know it is not entirely your fault (writer Nick Cave is a bit lazy), but still your delivery doesn't help.  What saves your performance is the fact that your character, Jack Bondurant, is supposed to be a little on the slow side.  Your ability to act dim witted is the most natural thing you've ever done.  Nice try though, better luck next time.

Back to that narration; is there any need, when the image on screen is clearly 20s era and we see men removing crates full with bottles of clear liquid, to tell us that it the prohibition era and that we are dealing with bootleggers?  Are you worried we might assume their just Culligan delivery guys?  It's clear that much time and money has been spent in making the image look authentic, why distract from that with the obviousness of this narration?  Such striking imagery offset by such unnecessary exposition.  It's a real shame but, unfortunately, it's not the most egregious thing the screenplay does.  For that you have to look at the center piece where Tom Hardy's Forrest Bondurant has his throat slit and his recent love interest, Maggie Beauford (Jessica Chastain is...well, something happens to her.  Or maybe not, at the moment when the assailants grab her and indicated that they are going to "have some fun," Hillcoat cuts away.  The next time we see her it is as Forrest is waking up at the hospital.  There is no visible sign that anything happened to her.  This in and of itself is not a big deal.  I've loved many a dramatic cut in my time.  The problem occurs when the moment is finally addressed near the end of the film.  It's as if Cave forgot about the earlier scene and realized he had to deal with it.  So we get a quick confrontation between Forrest and Maggie, where she tells him that it was her that saved his ass and he asks if she encountered the assailants.  She admits to seeing them but adamantly denies that anything happened.  That's it.  Forrest accepts this and goes off to the films final showdown.  What else could he do really?  He'd already had his revenge, one that was not in the least bit motivated by what they might or might have done to Maggie.  It had already been established that she was a working girl in Chicago and had left to get away from, well something.  The absence of physical abuse leaves little room for speculation; she must have volunteered her body in exchange for her life (at that moment she didn't know the fate of Forrest, whom she hadn't yet noticed bleeding to death behind his truck).  Okay, fine.  I'd probably do the same if it meant not being killed or horribly maimed, but her sacrifice means nothing to the film.  When Maggie tells Forrest that she came back and found him he is surprised, he thought he walked to the hospital.  When he asks if she saw the perpetrators, she denies that anything happened.  When he becomes more emphatic, she denies through tears but that's it.  It's the last we hear or see regarding the truth of that night.  It's annoying; the original ellipsis teased the promise of future purpose, making us believe that it would come into play, in some way be significant (which it should be).  To leave it as an afterthought is insulting to the audience and to Maggie.

While the screenplay may have its issues, there is much to praise about Lawless.  Since resurfacing with (he made a single feature in both the eighties and nineties) with 2005's superb The Proposition, Hillcoat has shown that he is a gifted stylist.  While neither The Road nor Lawless have the narrative success of The Proposition, both show a visualist worth keeping an eye on.  There are stunning moments in Lawless that feel unique despite the films heritage of prohibition era films.  This makes the deficiencies of the script all the more upsetting.  If Hillcoat and Cave could just find some symbiosis with regards where they are going with the film, the strange narrative turns wouldn't feel so jarring.  The situation with Maggie is not the only occasion where the script lets us down.  Gary Oldman plays Floyd Banner and after one of the better character introduction you're likely to see this year, he virtually disappears from script, popping up a couple of more times mostly to show the "growth" of LeBeouf's Jack.

The cast almost saves this film.  With the exception of LeBeouf, everyone is tremendously solid in their roles, with two especially good performances.  One comes from Hardy who plays another variation on the brutes that he has played in Bronson, Warrior, and this past years The Dark Knight Rises.  While it isn't as good as what he accomplished in Bronson, it is the strongest of the remaining.  His mumbling, cigar chomping, brass knuckle wearing alpha male is truly scary.  However, with very little affectation, Hardy is able to expose a vulnerable side to Forrest as well; a look here, a gesture there, the absence of a word when you might expect one, all this adds a lot to what could have been a very one dimensional character.  But the real revelation here is Guy Pearce.  Pearce has been good in many movies (including Hillcoat's The Proposition) but I've never seen him as terrifying or focused as he is here.  He plays "special deputy" Charlie Rakes, a vicious but cowardly lawman brought in to help out with the bootlegging problem.  Like many a power drunk lawman before him, Charlie has basically slipped into the role of serial killer.  Under the guise of doing his duty of course.  He struts into town like he's above these pathetic hicks but soon discovers that they are more formidable than he might have believed.  He then preys on the weakest of them until his violence inevitably comes back to him.  He is one of the slimiest characters I can remember and Pearce owns him from the first moment we see him.  He's reason enough to see the film.

Flawed but interesting, Lawless proves that Hillcoat isn't a fluke.  It's a improvement over The Road though it still can't come close to The Proposition.  It went virtually unnoticed during it's theatrical run and the "awards season" isn't giving it any love (despite Pearce giving possibly the best performance I've seen all year).  Take some time and check it out.  It's worth it.